A Touch Of It
by Teh Trickster
Summary: Ruka is upset after seeing something that she did not want to see, and Kain comforts her by being himself.


Hi guys! I finally managed to finish this story, and now I get to upload it! I really hope this works though, because apparently, there's a glitch on my forums page and so I'm not able to edit anything on my forums. Hopefully, I'll be able to put this up, otherwise all my hard work would go down the drain, and I really don't want that to happen.

Basically, this is a one-shot dedicated to my favourite Vampire Knight paring, Akatsuki Kain and Ruka Souen, and though they may not be canon at the moment, I really hope that one of these days, they actually would get together in the manga. They do seem to work so well together, and it's beautiful to see Kain take care of her. Now, if only she would get over Kaname, and look at Kain, and maybe this paring would actually be possible.

For those of you who are looking forward to my other stories, I would still be working on them, so not to worry. I really hope that you like this story of mine, and that you would take the time to review it. Even if you don't like it, please tell me what you don't like about it so that I would be able to improve on the mistakes that I have made. Thanks a lot, I would really appreciate it!

Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me. They belong to Natsuri Hino, the author of Vampire Knight.

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A Touch Of It

Sometimes, it was better not to be allowed to see certain things that one did not want to see. For Ruka Souen, this was certainly the case. She stared at the ground, scowling, as she made her way to the window seat in the common room of the Night Class Dormitory. She climbed onto it and arranged herself to lean against the side of the window. This was her favourite place in the entire school, and she was glad that no one seemed to have discovered it, though another friend of hers, Rima Toya, had come too close for comfort to doing so. It was through sheer luck that she had been distracted from it. Even better, no one would discover her here, because she had drawn the curtains over her hiding place. Due to her reputation, when she drew the curtains, her fellow schoolmates knew better than to interrupt her.

As for Ruka herself, she felt too awake to sleep, yet too tired to talk to anyone. It also did not help that her mind kept replaying certain scenes in her head, and that she could not seem to even get control of her own mind to stop it from torturing her. She closed her eyes and once again, the scene came to her mind unbidden. It was a typical scene that pretty much happened every single day, except that something had happened this particular day that upset her so deeply that it ended up causing her to be in this condition.

It had been just when class was about to start, when the Night Class students were making their way to the main block. The student councillors were out in full force; all two of them, forcing the day students back from the pathway so that the Night Class students would be able to walk by unobstructed. That loud, harsh voice of Zero Kiriyu yelling obscenities at the girls who finally backed away from the pathway, anger and disappointment evident in their features, hardly daring to look at him. It was a known fact that no one pissed of Zero Kiriyu, otherwise something bad would happen. That was probably why Zero was so effective as a student councillor, and one of the most unpopular students in the school.

Then, she saw Yuki Cross, the other student councillor, trip over a stone and loose her balance. Just as she was about to land on her back, a white shape suddenly materialised by her side and the next thing she knew, Kaname was there holding her up. He whispered something in her ear and she giggled, blushing. Ruka had not the heart to see anymore, she turned away and raced towards the school entrance, ignoring the catcalls and professions of love towards her from the majority of the day class boys. Even the day class boys were sometimes no better than those girls. Apparently, she was to them what Kaname was to the girls.

The whole of that night, she had been unable to concentrate. That scene kept playing in her mind over and over again, so much so that she even had to rush to the toilet during break in order to recover her composure after a supposedly harmless comment by Seiren, which she could not even remember what it was now. She was glad that Kaname was not in the same level as her; otherwise any semblance of calm remaining in her would go down the drain. She was not sure if Kaname would either ask if she was okay or ignore her as he normally did, and that would hurt far worse.

She had no idea how she had been able to survive for the rest of the night. The remaining hours of the night was spent in a daze of grey, herself hardly daring to even think otherwise that scene would end up coming back, though it did not seem to do a shred of good. Dimly, she remembered a certain classmate named Akatsuki Kain telling a teacher that she was not feeling well, and she had felt a surge of relief at his intervention. None of the teachers had called on her to answer questions that day.

The moment class ended, she had rushed over to her favourite spot and drew the curtain so that no one would disturb her. She was not even hungry even though she had not eaten anything since breakfast, her thoughts were far too jumbled to even contemplate eating something. Anyway, what she had seen with Kaname and Cross earlier had served to destroy her appetite.

She curled up and placed her chin on her knees. She was no better than those day class students, really, worshipping the ground on which other people walked, except that she was more subtle about it. There were no screaming or waving banners when it came to her. Yet, when it boiled down to purpose, she was doing the same thing. She was just as stupid as them, really.

She knew exactly when she started having this stupid crush on Kaname. It had been the very first time they met. It had been during a ball thrown by Ichio, or Takuma Ichijo's grandfather as they knew him, and her father quickly grasped her hand and practically dragged her to Kaname the moment he saw him. She had been star-struck when she first set eyes on him. Even though she had seen boys before, it seemed that Kaname was completely different from them. After the formal introductions, he had asked her for a dance, and after the dance, told her that it had been a pleasure dancing with her before another father came before him. He had been eager to show off his daughter, a sentiment that ran through much of the fathers attending the ball that day. She had thanked him and backed away, her face literally resembling a tomato.

Ever since then, she had been interested in him. She thought about him at least three times a day, wondering what he was doing at the moment and whether he was thinking of her. She had no idea how the other girls felt about him, since she had not dared to ask them. In Cross Academy, they met again, and she had offered to let him take her blood. He had looked rather tired, and to her surprise and intense pleasure, he had agreed. He had taken a rather small amount and thanked her for it, then offered to take her to her rooms to let her rest since she felt rather groggy. It made her feel special once again, that he was finally taking notice of her. Even better, he was actually taking care of her, and she yearned to have that happen to her again. She would have given up every single drop of blood she had in her body in order to experience that again.

However, it never lasted. It was the last time he took her blood. She had offered to let him drink her blood a few times after that, but he had politely declined, choosing instead to spend time with that human girl. What was so interesting about her anyway? She was just a human girl, no better than all those girls who ran after him screaming their lungs out. He was a pure blooded vampire, and she hardly deserved to breathe the same air he did. Even she, an aristocratic vampire, would be a far better candidate.

She wished she had never come to Cross Academy. She had begged her father to let her come here because she heard that Kaname would be in attendance, but it only served to cause her more heartache.

At that moment, the curtains parted, and a tousled head poked itself in. She was just about to scream and fling something . . . anything in its direction but managed to catch herself in time. It was only Kain, and he was gazing at her with something approaching concern and surprise. "You okay?" he finally asked.

Now that the shock was fading away, anger was starting to kick in. She hated interruptions of any sort, and this . . . idiot had the gall to pester her when she had indicated that she wanted privacy. Then again, Kain never really paid attention to details. It was about time he learnt how to. She glared at him. "I hardly think it is any of your business," she snapped. "Surely you know better than to disturb me when I want to be alone, unless your head is too thick to process a single thought."

Kain shrugged and looked away. After almost a minute, he finally said, "It's almost time for bed. I got you something to eat, by the way. You were not in the canteen just now."

Ruka just stared at him. First the incident with the teachers, now this. What was up with Kain? Of course, it did make her feel slightly better being fussed over like that, at least someone actually cared to make sure that she was all right. "Please, just leave me alone," she said finally. "I'm neither sleepy nor hungry."

Kain looked her over, concern misting his grey eyes. "Okay," he said finally. "I'll just put your food in you room, just in case you get hungry later." He stood up to leave. She had no idea why she did it, but almost instinctively, her hand reached out and grabbed his sleeve. He looked at her in surprise, before smiling in that gentle, kind way of his and sitting down on the window seat as well. Both remained silent as they stared out of the window.

The sky was just starting to light up now, and the first rays of sunlight soon fell upon their faces. Both flinched involuntarily and turned away from the sunlight. Ruka climbed down from her perch on the window seat and moved further into the common room and Kain joined her as well, drawing the curtains shut over the window seat so that the sunlight would not drift in. "Thanks," she finally said, "I really appreciate it." Appreciate what, she did not mention. She just felt thankful that he was . . . himself in general. She allowed herself a small smile. Kain was Kain, and she would not have preferred any other way.

Kain smiled sheepishly and ran a hand through his light blond hair, gazing at the curtain. "No problem," he answered. "You better go and get some rest now."

Now that Kain mentioned it, Ruka did feel tired, and she felt that perhaps, she would be able to fall asleep now. Once again, that scene with Kaname and Yuki drifted across her mind, but for some reason, it did not hurt as much as it did before. It still ached, but it was not overwhelming enough to send tears to her eyes. However, she did need to know something, she knew that it would hurt, but she just needed so badly to know.

"Master Kaname and . . . Cross . . . they are together, arn't't they?" She asked, looking down at Kain's shoes so that she would not have to face him.

Kain sighed. "I believe so," he said, rather slowly. "I'm not too sure of the details myself but . . . they do look like they are dating."

"He likes her, doesn't he?" she persisted, finally daring to look into his face.

Kain gazed around the room, before finally turning back to Ruka. He looked like he was on the verge of saying something, but instead, he only nodded. Both of them did not need to say anything, words were so useless in times like these. "You will be okay?" he finally asked.

Ruka gave a sad smile. "I will be," she said. "I guess . . . I better go and get some rest now."

"I'll walk you up to your room," he replied.

Ruka just stared at him and involuntarily; a smile crept across her face. It felt so good to smile after all that tension. "Kain, you can't do that! You sure you want to bump into half-naked girls?"

Kain grinned. "Well, I am a guy," he replied, giving a cheeky wink. "You're right though, I wouldn't want to get thrown out of the school and accused of molestation."

"I'm sure you wouldn't" Ruka told him, "You're far too nice to think of anything negative."

Kain shrugged. "Well . . . is that a compliment?"

"It could be," she replied. "Goodnight, or good morning if we want to get into technicalities. You mentioned something about food earlier?"

Kain smiled in relief and handed her a paper packet held closed by a rubber band. "I might as well give it to you now, since I can't go into your room."

Ruka accepted the package. "Thank you," she said. "I guess I have to grab a bite sooner or later."

"Good morning, then," Kain told her. "Sleep well."

"Thank you, you too," she smiled at him. "Oh, and Kain . . ." She took a deep breath. "You can call me Ruka if you like. In fact, I would quite enjoy it." With that, she turned and hurried out of the room, afraid that Kain would see the red tinge in her cheeks. It was strange, normally only Kaname had the power to do such a thing to her and yet, these days, Kain seemed to be able to as well.

Kain stood in the common room beaming like an idiot. Well, considering her feelings for Kaname, this was as good as he could get. Perhaps, when she got over Kaname . . . maybe she would start to consider him. At least, he really did hope so. At least, it was a start. A touch of it, maybe. Who knows what would happen next?

With that, he too left the common room to go to his own room. It was about time he started taking his own advice.


End file.
